Eurovisionary

He may not have got through the Semi-Final at Eurovision, but Montenegrin singer Slavko Kalezić is riding high in The X Factor UK after reaching the final audition stage of the show.

We here at EuroVisionary are indeed visionaries as we correctly predicted last night that Slavko would retain his seat at the Six-Chair Challenge and jet off to the ‘Judges’ Houses’ round of the competition.

After a gruelling two-hour long show, we have finally seen Slavko get the thumbs up from his ‘outer’ diva, Nicole Scherzinger. As is customary with X-Factor UK, each of the categories go to their respective judge’s house for a final performance and a chance to appear on the live shows.

Slavko was successful and will now set off with his other 5 peers in the ‘Overs’ to the beautiful country of South Africa. There, he will sing one last time for Nicole and her guest judge, UK Grime Artist Stormzy, who is fast becoming one of the biggest artists in the country and will be able to spot the talented from the bunch.

It will be interesting to see how far Slavko can go in the competition, will he get to the live shows or bomb at the last stage? Only time will tell but keep posted for all the up to date news from us here at EuroVisionary!

Slavko has managed to get a seat in tonight’s Six Chair Challenge at The X Factor UK. Will the Eurovision 2017 entrant for Montenegro manage to hold on to his chair by the time tomorrow’s show is over?

Slavko is just one step away from the X Factor live shows as he sang his heart out to win a seat in the dreaded Six Chair Challenge. Tonight, he sang They Tell Me I Am A Bad Boy by David Guetta.

His performance started with the Montenegrin addressing all the judges one by one before making special eye contact with Nicole Scherzinger. It all went fairly smoothly, Slavko in his characteristic diva style throughout, his braid staying firmly on his head this time. Former pussy cat doll Nicole Scherzinger has the difficult choice of whittling down her category to just six.

Slavko had looked a bit worried when a previous contestant was booed by the crowd. He needed not to have worried though. After some very positive feedback from Louis Walsh, Nicole gave Slavko one of the remaining chairs.

Former Dutch national finalist Berget Lewis also managed to get a seat in Nicole’s team. During her performance, Slavko looked quite tense, probably due to appreciating her vocal ability.

Two chairs were swapped over the evening, though Slavko managed to survive both changes made by Nicole. It remains to be seen whether the Montenegrin artist will manage to hold on to it during tomorrow’s show when the rest of Nicole’s candidates, including 2010 Cyprus entrant Jon Lilygreen, will perform. Stay tuned for what happens tomorrow night!

In the next stage of the competition we will see Slavko and the rest of the ‘overs’ jetting off to an exotic location. Six contestants will go but only three will progress to the live shows.

Jamala has joined the likes of Angelina Jolie and Jared Leto in becoming Ambassedors of Goodwill to raise awareness of human trafficking and modern slavery. This issue is affecting a lot of people around the world, also in Ukraine.

Ukrainian singer Jamala became Ambassador of goodwill to counter human trafficking. The winner of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest supported the long-standing work of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the UN Agency for Migration, on combating and preventing modern slavery in social advertising. A special clip will be broadcast on the Ukrainian TV channels on October 18th, the European Day against Human Trafficking. In addition, a nationwide outdoor advertising campaign is also planned to raise awareness of the issue.

According to a study commissioned by IOM, since 1991, more than 230,000 Ukrainians have been trafficked. Since 2000, the IOM has been providing assistance to almost 14,000 victims of contemporary slavery. In the first six months of this year, the IOM Detected 639 victims of human trafficking for labor and sexual exploitation in 23 countries, in particular, in Ukraine. This figure is 30% higher compared with the same period in 2016.

In Ukraine, a lot of people live on the verge of poverty and are ready to work wherever and in all conditions. They are, as a rule, victims of human traffickers and slavery. Unfortunately, the number of casualties is increasing every year. This campaign, of course, will not solve the problem, but may attract the attention of the media, officials, and society. The main goal is to warn Ukrainians that they need to be very careful when they consider proposals for work abroad.

Jamala

A recent IOM study shows that one fifth of Ukraine’s population said they would be prepared to illegally cross the border to work illegally, work in locked-out premises or give a passport to the employer. This comes after the Ukrainian hryvnia lost 70% percent of it’s value against the dollar in 2012. However, the economy of the country has been slowly showing signs of recovery.

See alsoJamala sells Eurovision dresses to help the homeless dogs of Kyiv

Dr Thomas Lothar Weiss, Head of the IOM Mission in Ukraine spoke about the new initiative “We greatly appreciate Jamala’s participation in our campaign to prevent modern slavery. We believe that Jamala will help save many human destinies”.

The Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) of Malta have announced the 16 songs that have made it to its national selection for Eurovision 2018. The announcement happened during a special meeting with all the participants from the preliminary stage.

We reported earlier that, for yet another year, the island nation will be selecting its Eurovision entry through the Malta Eurovision Song Contest (MESC) format.

Thirty songs from those submitted to the Maltese public broadcaster were shortlisted last month and, now, these have been whittled down to sixteen. The sixteen qualifiers were selected after three days of auditions in front of a panel that consisted of seven foreign judges.

The sixteen qualifiers to the Maltese national final 2018 can be seen in the list below:

The list of the sixteen finalist entries as seen on the official website of the Maltese public broadcaster.

The Maltese national final is scheduled to take place in February 2018.

See alsoHungary: A Dal continues in 2018

This year, the Malta Eurovision Song Contest was won by Claudia Faniello and the song Breathlessly. Malta competed in the second semi final but failed to qualify to the grand final of 13th May. Could one of the candidates above see the country’s fortunes restored?

In the videos below, you can watch Claudia singing her classic ballad Breathlessly as well as answering our Would You Rather questions in Kyiv last May.

Following the official confirmation of Hungary for next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, it has also been revealed that A Dal, the country’s national selection show, will start its seventh season in 2018.

Rules of application do not see many changes compared to previous years, they are basically normal Eurovision rules with some additions.

Performers have to be experienced artists who have already released a music album or whose songs have already been played on national radio or TV channels. Both Hungarian and international songwriters are welcome, but the songs have to be performed by Hungarian citizens or singers who speak Hungarian as their native language. Broadcaster MTVA prefers the songs to be performed in the Hungarian language during A Dal, but songs in English and in any official language of the national and ethnic minorities living in Hungary can also be submitted.

According to MTVA’s press release, we will see multiple preliminary rounds again before the Grand Final, however the number of shows and their dates have not been confirmed yet. There will be three special awards given too during the live shows. A winner will be crowned in the categories of Best Lyrics, Newcomer of The Year, and Best Acoustic Performance.

You can find all the information to apply here and, in case you’re interested, you can already start filling in the application form and upload your song. The deadline to do so is the 15th of November 2017.

In 2017, Hungary was represented by Joci Pápai in Kyiv – who qualified to the Grand Final just like all entrants from the country since 2011 -, and his ethnic song Origo finished in 8th position with 200 points.

Would you like to own a piece of Eurovision history and also have the satisfaction of helping a good cause? You now have the chance as Jamala is selling her Eurovision dresses to help the homeless dogs in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Eurovision 2016 winner Jamala is on a mission to help the thousands of homeless animals that live at the Sirius animal shelter in Kyiv. To do this, she is selling the outfits that she wore at the 2017 contest held in the Ukrainian capital earlier this year.

The announcement was made on her official Facebook page “I want to help pay the asylum debt and survive the winter of more than 2,600 animals, so I decided to put my clothes on sale. For me, these are iconic dresses! I think you remember yourself, I played at Eurovision in them, I wore on the opening ceremony, ”

There are 6 dresses for sale, priced between $1,000 – $6,000 and can be purchased through the contact number at the bottom of each picture within her gallery. Included in the sale is the dress worn by Jamala during her interval performance when she was stage bombed by a prankster flashing his bare butt.

See alsoJamala stars in documentary about her 2016 victory and the Crimean Tatars

How can you help?

For those of you who don’t have thousands of dollars spare to buy a dress, but would still like to help the cause, you can. Money can be sent to the shelter directly. The relevant bank details are on the site dogcat.com.ua.

You can see Jamala performing I Believe In Yiou at this year’s interval, wearing one of the dresses for sale in the video below.